**4.3 Properties of pashmina fibre**

Fibre fineness is the most important quality parameter and it differentiates pashmina fibre from the sheep wool. The average fibre fineness of pashmina fibre is 12–13 μ. The average fibre length is 55–60 mm. The fibre length depends on its origin/genotypes, grade and source. The mean fibre length of guard hair varies from 25 to 93 mm [2]. The microscopic structure of the fibre is given in (**Figure 4**).

**Figure 4.** *Morphological structure of wool. Source: Shakyawar et al. [2].*
